Violin Forum/Message Board Forum Index Violin Forum/Message Board
Provided by Violin Vision
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

Where is everyone and what are you all playing these days?
Goto page 1, 2  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Violin Forum/Message Board Forum Index -> Musician's Forum
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:03 pm    Post subject: Where is everyone and what are you all playing these days? Reply with quote

I miss the activity on this board. It seemed to die off after the switch to the new board - I don't know why. I have not been here lately myself, but I will try to check more often.

I have been working on my ear training skills, trying to learn to quickly identify intervals by sound. I found this very helpful site: www.good-ear.com

I am also trying to learn to read my music a bit differently, seeing and noting the specific intervals as I sightread each new piece. Is that "third" made up of 2 whole steps or 1 1/2 steps? What should it "sound" like? (Normally I just play by finger number combined with following my "ear" which is fine if there are no accidentals involved.)

What else? Well, I'm trying to figure out why I seem to hold my bow oddly. My fingers don't wrap around the frog as far as the fingers of others seem to. They don't come close to touching the "dot" on the frog but are almost up on the stick part entirely. Hmmm.

I did discover that I can vibrate with my first finger better if I remember to keep my thumb bent and loose. Smile

So what are the rest of you up to?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Selah
Junior Member


Joined: 30 Sep 2007
Posts: 3
Location: Missouri

PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:56 pm    Post subject: Hi, Amalia Reply with quote

I'm trying to get myself practiced up on scales and studies. It's been a long time since I've had a violin lesson and I'm looking forward to starting them up again....(and nervous).....
_________________
Selah

Pause and think about it
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:46 pm    Post subject: what are you playing Reply with quote

I'm also trying to memorize something. OY! I have never done that. I kinda sorta memorized the first 3 pages of the 3rd movement of the Mozart No. 5 recently, but now I'm trying to memorize the 1st movement (or at least the first PAGE) of the Mendelssohn. I'm hoping that if I memorize it I will be able to play it better. Everyone says it works that way anyway, but I don't really know since I have not experience memorizing.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Becky
Senior Member


Joined: 09 Apr 2007
Posts: 83

PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

things have been so busy lately that I've been trying to practice enough so I don't lose what I have (can't let my students get better than me). I'm mainly doing a lot of scales and technical exercises. I've also been going back over some old music (like Haydn's G violin concerto) just for the sake of "relearning"...I don't think I was truly ready for it years ago when my teacher gave it to me and now that I'm a better player I want to go over some old pieces I loved and do more with them.
Amalia, good for you for trying to memorize. It truly does help you play better. For some reason I always stall and don't work on memorization much (I remember for my last violin exam I had to memorize it and worked on memorizing a few days beforehand), but once I memorize it I wonder why I waited so long. Memorizing takes you to a whole new level of musical understanding with that piece. Good luck.
(Sometimes if I'm having trouble memorizing a particular passage, I think of it in chords, e.g. a passage might be based on a C scale or chord, then an F scale or chord, then a G, etc...knowing the overall "skeleton" the chords give a piece can aid in filling in all the notes)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:19 am    Post subject: chords Reply with quote

ACK! What's a chord!?

Ok, I know what a chord is but I don't play piano, so I don't ever look at my violin music and think: chords.

That said, I took a voice, ear training, theory lesson today with my dd (dear daughter) and the teacher played a phrase for us and we had to write out the music and name the chords! ACK! I can easily tell WHEN a chord change is needed, but I have no clue what chord to change to.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Becky
Senior Member


Joined: 09 Apr 2007
Posts: 83

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

haha, I do play piano and I still don't automatically think chords. If you can't tell naturally from the melody what the chord is, then it probably won't help. I was mainly referring to passages whose chord can easily be seen such as scale-type runs or arpeggiated chords.
Are you doing written theory or aural theory? One of the first things I learned back in theory (written) was rules about chords...like a I chord can go to any chord, but a V chord can only go to a I or vi...when you know which chords can go where and which chords are progressive and which offer more resolution, it gets a lot easier to figure out what chord to change to....of course after basic theory, you start learning about the exceptions to the rules (which made it more fun for me because I love theory, but it can make it complicated for other)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:41 pm    Post subject: chords Reply with quote

Amalia has fainted. Shocked
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
techfiddle
Member


Joined: 17 Jun 2009
Posts: 122

PostPosted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:19 pm    Post subject: Re: Where is everyone and what are you all playing these day Reply with quote

Amalia wrote:
I miss the activity on this board. It seemed to die off after the switch to the new board - I don't know why. I have not been here lately myself, but I will try to check more often.

I have been working on my ear training skills, trying to learn to quickly identify intervals by sound. I found this very helpful site: www.good-ear.com

I am also trying to learn to read my music a bit differently, seeing and noting the specific intervals as I sightread each new piece. Is that "third" made up of 2 whole steps or 1 1/2 steps? What should it "sound" like? (Normally I just play by finger number combined with following my "ear" which is fine if there are no accidentals involved.)

What else? Well, I'm trying to figure out why I seem to hold my bow oddly. My fingers don't wrap around the frog as far as the fingers of others seem to. They don't come close to touching the "dot" on the frog but are almost up on the stick part entirely. Hmmm.

I did discover that I can vibrate with my first finger better if I remember to keep my thumb bent and loose. Smile

So what are the rest of you up to?




You were here two years ago, and now you're teaching? Oh my...
_________________
Connie's Violin Page
Internet resources for string players,
string teachers, parents & students
http://beststudentviolins.com/Home.html
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmm. I didn't realize that length of time on this board is considered a teacher qualification. Question I began playing when I was about 7yo - took private lessons, played all through highschool and a few years after, took a long break to rear 10 children and start them all on piano and a stringed instrument and have been taking private violin lessons again for about 15 years. I am not a professional violin teacher, if that is what you mistakenly thought, but then I think we can all learn from each other and of course there are teachers and then there teachers.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Shirley
Senior Member


Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 178
Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello, Amalia! Summers are like that - out and about. A comment on your bow hold - me, too! No matter what I did, I found myself gripping the frog at its top. Then I decided to move my index finger a little away from the rest. Voila - at least, I think so. I had been loather to try this, because so many players say no no, and others say yes yes to this placement of the index finger. So I move it just a little.

I must tel lyou that I heard Mozart's 5th violin concerto last night played by a young man whose name I intend to remember: Augustin Hadelich. Whoo boy - Did he ever have Mozart down right! Such tone and technique.

Becky - I will try the "chord idea" for difficult passages, memorizing or not. Thanks!

Shirley
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Shirley, nice to see you again! Smile

Update on my bow hold:

Well, a year or so ago, I got a new bow. It's a very nice old french bow, but oh my, I've discovered that it is hard to play. It's like a Ferrari, you can't be careless with it. It oversteers (the Ferrari). It is fabulous if you are a good driver but hard to handle if you are an average mom who usually only drives to the grocery store now and then.

Okay, so my new bow is like that. I found I could NOT hold my bow the way I have been holding it for 40 some years. I can NOT bow sloppy or crooked. Surprisingly, I have found that things work better if I keep the hairs flatter on the strings than I used to.

So, I had to relearn everything. I tried the old "watch yourself in the mirror" advice for straighter bowing and that was pretty useless, so eventually I came up with a way of "feeling" whether this bow was straight or not by first bowing on 2 strings, then one - slowly from frog to tip and back, repeat, repeat. Starting that way - where I could really "feel" whether my bow was straight - led me to the correct "hold", which ended up being with a flatter wrist, thumb aimed more toward the frog than at the usual 45 degees to the stick, and the first finger more toward the tip than before. It took me a good month to have this new hold take root and become "automatic" , but it really paid off with this particular bow. Overall, I feel as though I have a lot more bow control now than I did with the way I was holding my bow before.

My classical teacher approves, but the fiddle teacher I had short term did not. He wanted me to go back to my old bow hold. Hmmm. I don't think so. I feel like I'm really fighting this bow if I bow the old way and one should not have to fight with their Ferrari. With the new way, I feel like I can do things I could never do before and like this bow was really worth the investment.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Shirley
Senior Member


Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 178
Location: West of Denver, Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 3:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, Amalia - good for you! What determination - I'm impressed, and since I have a bow that is not perhaps as cantankerous as yours (what a fun description!) I will try a little harder now. This is a good bow, but heavy.

But for a good French bow, it was obviously worth the trouble to you - it sounds as though you have not only solved the problem, but have come out on top. I'm inspired to try harder. Thank you!

See ya around! Shirley
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
scottlee
Junior Member


Joined: 29 Sep 2009
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:36 am    Post subject: Ear Training Reply with quote

Hey Amalia I think you're on the right track trying to incorporate ear training into your practice. I've always found that if you are more aware of the notes and their function as you learn them, you play them more musically and they are easier to remember. Keep up the good work!
_________________
Scott Lee - Composer

http://www.scottleemusic.info
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Amalia
Member


Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 129

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Scott. For some reason my "finger memory" isn't naturally very good and it takes me about 30 minutes to "warm up" every time I play, if I'm just relying on finger memory. But now that I'm focusing on listening to the intervals, I spend about 5 minutes playing something very slowly and listening and getting perfectly in tune intervals and suddenly everything comes back from the day before and I'm ready to go! It's really amazing how much warm up time this saves. It's all in the ear!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
John Cadd
Super Member


Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 819
Location: Hoylake

PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:23 pm    Post subject: ear training Reply with quote

Amalia
Do you teach pupils to play scales with one finger.I find you need to listen and it also gives wonderful practice at finding the first three positions as if you were changing gear.Going up you hit second position from the starting first.Coming down you stretch back from third To second and then drop into first accurately. Easy to remember and makes for an inventive way to find the notes .Positions don`t become a straightjacket.
I seldom see any comments about rubber bow grips.The modern ones are not so good.My teacher had a lovely Gagliano violin and let me play it once with his bow. The grip was really sticky and bungy and soft.
Some would not like that but I always remember it.
How much do you alter the bow tension from one piece to another.Chords would be better just a bit looser. Bouncing bow notes would be better with some more tension. ( imho )
I took up guitar recently and if the thumb nail is too long the bottom of the down bow gets a little awkward.Do the ladies find that bothers them?
Do you recommend balancing a large coin on the back of the hand when teaching bowing?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Violin Forum/Message Board Forum Index -> Musician's Forum All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group